Welcome to this week’s edition of breakfast in bed, a free newsletter delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. The intention behind the newsletter is to serve as a distraction from your existential Sunday dread—AKA the Sunday Scaries. It is broken into five categories, each of which represents one of the ways I distract from my own Sunday Scaries. Thank you for reading!
read
I finally read Funny Story by Emily Henry and OH MY GOD!!!! I loved this book so much. Last week I said, The Ex-Vows was my favorite romance of the year thus far, but in just one week’s time it has been dethroned by Funny Story. Not only is this my favorite romance of the year, but it is my favorite of all of Emily Henry’s novels to date.
If you haven’t read it yet, drop what you’re doing and run to your local indie bookstore to grab a copy.
substacks
My Substack inbox is a hot mess, it’s been a wild week on the personal front and I have not had a ton of time to read, but here are a few things I read and loved.
Drumroll, Please: The 20 Best Books of the 21st Century by
of Book Enthusiast - This 5 part series featured 100 books in total and was a crowdsourced response to the recent (controversial) NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list. My personal tastes aligned more with this version than the NYT list and it was great to see so many of my favorite books represented, plus find new ones to add to my TBR. of Ella Off the Rails of Ask PollyThe surprising thing that may be holding back your writing by
of Jojo’s Substack and Me Before You and many more amazing booksother reads from around the internet
Meet the queen of the ‘trad-wives’ (and her eight children) - I — along with the rest of America — am endlessly fascinated by the trad-wife phenomenon and this profile on Hannah Neeleman (@ballerinafarm) was a very interesting read.
eat
Wednesday evening I had a craving for carrot cake, but I am not a baker and was absolutely not going to bake an entire cake. Instead, I searched for carrot cake smoothie recipes to make Thursday for breakfast. In general, I am not a fan of trying to satisfy cravings with a fake alternatives, but there was just no universe in which I was baking a carrot cake on Wednesday night. I found two smoothies recipes that looked good (one from Minimalist Baker and one from Ambitious Kitchen) and used them as inspiration for my own version. It was AMAZING:
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup shredded carrots (I did a pretty heaping cup)
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
2 cups raw frozen spinach (warning, the spinach gives it a funky color)
3/4 cup - 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk depending on how thick you prefer
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 scoop SFH churro protein powder (this protein powder tastes like the leftover milk in a bowl Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but you can sub any vanilla protein powder or another similar flavor; subbing a 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, or vanilla yogurt would also work)
shop
of Really Good Vintage launched a storefront and every single piece is curated to perfection. So chic. Such a vibe. My aunt-in-law gave me a gift card to Quince for my birthday and I’ve been perusing the site on a daily basis trying to decide what to buy. I get so trigger shy with gift card purchases, I just want them to be perfect!! Here’s what I’m eyeing…
(No affiliate links, just an indecisive girl with a gift card to burn.)
scroll
listen
Having a rough Sunday? Tempted to pull a Gone Girl and fake your own kidnapping to get out of work tomorrow? Feel ya. And so did Sherri Papini back in 2016 when she did exactly that. This Pop Apologists deep dive into Sherri Papini’s story was fascinating, I actually can’t believe that this woman did what she did.
That’s all I’ve got for today! If you enjoyed this edition of breakfast in bed, please consider sharing it with a friend or follow along on Instagram, it means the world when you do!
XOXO,
Maddie
I loved Funny Story! But my favourite EmHen remains Book Lovers🤩
I need to read Emily Henry, I haven't read any of her books yet 🫣